Your Comments (oldest first)

Olof for captain...agreed Barry is in the best form out the two but when Olof gets his form back there is no one else I would rather have at the back....and he was loyal to us when there was speculation one of the big boys could be after him. CAVE MAN for captain.

Mellberg is not vocal enough to be captain, out of the current crop of players that will be regulars in the team i suppose it should be Barry but who knows who MON is going to sign before the deadline, maybe he has a player in mind who he wants to bring in as captain....?

Has O'Neill actually indicated that he is looking to change the captain or is this all speculation? Mellberg would be gutted if he was stripped of the captaincy. If he gives it up then fine, but why rock the boat?

simonwoburn - i agree hideous o'leary picture must go, I don't want to see his face again.
I still say its totally not important who is club captain, you need 11 leaders on the pitch, anyone who doesn't give 100% should be out anyway. Just because someone is vocal doesn't mean you will not listen to them if they aren't captain. Its a joke, captaincy won't change anything, if you believe that you're a fool.

As a life-long Aston Villa and Northern Ireland supporter I feel that Aaron Hughes is an ideal candidate for captain. He has led N.I. very well and remains a central figure for club and country. I would also like to mention the pride in our N.I. contingent. Our captain (Hughes) and best player (Davis) are part of the Villa team - and now our manager is from Ulster!! I now wear my Villa shirt with pride at Villa AND Windsor Park!!

Stevie Davis 4 captain.He will score 10+ goalsfor us this season and has already captained N.I.Oh and MON if u read this please leave Lennon up in scotland.To old now for the prem lets face it he can only go sideways or back to his own keeper.

Steven Davis surely has enough on his plate to ensure that he holds on to his regular starting place? He's too young and inexperienced in my estimation to even be considered for the role. Aaron Hughes might be a candidate, but is he going to be assured of a regular starting spot? Got to be Olof or Gareth, my preference being the latter. Of course, MON might have ideas to bring in a Neil Lennon or similar, and immediately award him the captains armband. Gareth for me though.

DeanoVilla, if the Villa are about to spend £6 million I think that a new right back is well down the list of priorities. We have good (but not world class) players in Hughes and Delaney. Why would we want at 27 year old mercenary like Chimponda? As for the club captain, those who think the role is just about *****ing the coin before the game are so wrong it unbelievable. The club captain is a mark of recognition and respect, it is somebody to who the other players look up too, not only on the pitch but in all aspects of their career. Agreed we want 11 leaders on the pitch, but there must always be one that the manager uses as his mouth piece the one that drags every body up when the going gets tough ie. Keane, Gerrard, Viera, Terry, Mortimer. Just importantly nowadays is the abilty to be media friendly. Somebody who can be the 'face' of Aston Villa wherever we play. The way it works nowadays is that the manager needs a leader who can manipulate the press and get messages out that would be impossible for the manager to say. In the same way that Roy Keane carried enough clout to say the atmosphere at Old Trafford was crap. Ferguson couldn't say that but he knew that if his captain said it the fans would listen. Gareth Barry was voted the players player of the year last year so he has the respect of his peers. He has been with us for eight years and understands the club and the fans exactly. He is media friendly and has the total support of the fans. Plus apparently he is good at coin *****ing. Lets have Gareth as club captain and lets get Olly concentrating on his game and have him back as the player he was a couple of seasons ago. Non season ticket holders need not reply. Support the club or keep your opinions to yourself.

Voiceoftheholte - I'm afraid I can only part agree with you, Vieira demanded his own respect, I don't think a player like Barry would automatically be catapulted into that sort of catagory if he was captain. Presumably according to your argument that it'd make mellberg better to remove the captaincy, then based on that it'd make barry worse to give it to him?
Its mainly a media thing and I think Mellberg carries himself professionally as we would hope, Barry still goes out clubbing etc, not really what we are looking for in a skipper surely?

Thekentvillan - You misunderstand the point. I didn't say that Olly was playing worse because he was captain. He has just underperformed full stop. You are also completely incorrect about Barry going clubbing. He is now settled with a couple of kids and is not doing the club circuit in the way that many players do. However as a 25 year old bloke are you saying he shouldn't be seen in clubs at all? But on this basis I presume that you wouldn't like someone such as say, Steve Gerrard (the scouse club king)and his missus (biggest wag of them all) any where near Villa Park. So not only are you factually incorrect you are also very hypocritical.

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